Westward Bound

Well, I’m headed to LA for a long (although I’m sure it will seem short!) weekend with my little sister and one of my best friends. Since eats haven’t been exciting this week (although I have been loving my oats with brown sugar an pomegranate arils!) and exercise has consisted of treadmill running, I thought I would post my new favorite (EASY!) recipe. I created this one night when I had nothing planned for dinner and it turned out wonderfully. I have even made it a day ahead of time, refrigerated and then baked the next day. Yum!

Easy Cheesey Pasta Bake

8 oz. uncooked cavatappi pasta

12 (or so) pre cooked meatballs, diced into small pieces (or could use mushrooms, fake hamburger, ground beef-turkey-chicken)

2 cups low fat shredded mozzarella cheese

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Cook pasta until just about done. Drain and put in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese over pasta. Heat pasta sauce and meat in a sauce pan. Once heated, spread over cheese and pasta. Cover with remaining cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 475* for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden and gooey.

So easy and so good!

Homemade Cinnamon Apples

At the request of Kristin, here is my homemade cinnamon apples recipe.

Homemade Cinnamon Apples

• 1/2 peck Gala apples (or about 12-15)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Peel and dice up the apples and throw them into the crock-pot. Add cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon juice. Mix everything together. Cook on high for about 2-3 hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so to prevent scorching. This will result in chunky apples, if you would like more of an applesauce consistency, keep cooking and stirring until the apples break down.

This is great as an oatmeal topping, on ice-cream (especially the pumpkin kind!), or just straight up (warm or cold)! They also freeze very well. I love to make a huge batch and freeze it into smaller portions to enjoy after apple season has ended.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Noodles

I adapted this from Iowa Girl’s recipe.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, cut into chunks
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 large carrots, finely sliced
• 3 large celery stalks, finely sliced
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 40 oz. chicken broth
• Homemade noodles (see below)

Sautee onions in olive oil, salt and pepper until softened. Add garlic and stir/cook for another minute. Add carrots and celery, cook for 5 minutes. Add a splash of broth, cover pot and let veggies softene for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and remaining broth, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Add noodles and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

If you don’t plan on eating until the next day, you will need to make sure you have more broth on hand to add when you reheat!

Homemade Egg Noodles

• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• Water, as needed

Mix flour and salt together. Add eggs and mix. Little by little, add water to make a very thick dough. Roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface. Cut into strips and immediately drop them into boiling soup. These will fatten up considerably, so don’t make the dough strips to big!!

 

Curry

I have never tried a curry dish befores, so when I came across this easy curry stir-fry, I knew I had to try it.  I serverd the stir-fry over some plain couscous made with chicken broth. This was a very filling and tasty meal. I can’t wait to try more curry dishes!!!

Curry Chicken

1 tablespoon cornstartch
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
1 cup sliced fresh carrots
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 cup fresh sweet onion, cut into chunks

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, curry and red pepper flakes. Stir in broth and soy sauce until smooth; set aside. In a large nonstick skillet or wok coated with nonstick cooking spray, stir-fry chicken in 1 teaspoon oil for 5-6 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same pan, stir-fry carrots ans garlic in remaining oil for 1 minute. Stir in broccoli andonion; cook 2 minutes longer, or until desired texture. Stir broth mixture and stir into veggies. Bring to a boil; cook andstir for two minutes or until thickened. Return chicken to the pan; heat through.

Fall Flavors

Last night hubby had class, so I made something for dinner that I wanted to try and knew he would not want….Acorn Squash!!

I love summer squash, but have “always” hated any type of winter squash. My mom used to make mashed up orange squash goop, and I hated it…but I decided to give it another shot and purchased an acorn and a buttercup squash last weekend.

My acorn squash turned out WONDERFUL! I am so excited for the leftovers at lunch today!

Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash
2 small apples, chopped (I used Gala’s)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350*. Cut squash in half and remove seeds and fibers. Place squash cut side up in a baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. While squash is baking, melt butter. In a small mixing bowl combine butter, apples, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Spoon into the center of the squash after they have baked. Return to the oven and bake for 30 more minutes or until the squash is tender.

This was a very filling meal! I stuck one of the halves in a bowl and ate it out of the “shell”. Yum!

Amazing

I’m sorry I’ve been a bad blogger this week! I have been CRAZY busy at work (and since I don’t have internet at home, blogging must be done on my lunch hour!) Half a day of work today and then Homecoming festivities the rest of the day!

Maybe I can redeem myself with a new recipe. I found this gem at MyRecipes. Amazing.

Fresh Tomato and Basil Pasta

1 Tbsp plus 1/4 tsp salt, divided
1 pound penne pasta
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, seeded and chopped (any suggestions on the best way to seed a tomato?)
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the penne; cook until pasta is just tender to the bite. Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and garlic in a large bowl. Add olive oil and remaining salt to the mixture. Drain pasta and add to tomato mixture. Toss. Can be served hot, warm, or cold. (This makes the kitchen smell AMAZING!)

Overnight Steel Cut Oats

Awhile ago I purchased a small bag of steel cut groats at our local Amish bulk foods store. I had never tried these, but was intrigued. I put off making them because I really wasn’t sure how. Sunday night I finally bit the bullet and did a little research online as to how to prepare them.

It was so easy! I loved how little time it actually took, and now I have a big bowl of oats in the refrigerator that should last me the whole week!

Overnight Steel Cut Groats

In a large sauce pan, mix 1 1/2 cups steel cut groats

 

With 6 cups water. Boil for 1 minute

 Cover and let sit at room temperature in the sauce pan overnight…they will absorb a lot of the water overnight!

 

In the morning, boil again for 10 minutes, or until the are thick and creamy (but still have a little “crunch” in the middle). I did have to make sure I watched these carefully, because they were so thick that they almost burned when I just lef them to boil.

Scoop a bowlful up, add your favorite toppings and enjoy!!! (1/2 of a Nectarine, Maple Syrup, a little bit of Maple Brown Sugar Granola)

I put the rest into a large tupperware bowl and just scoop out what I want each day and throw it into the microwave.

I can’t believe I was “affraid” of this stuff! It was so easy and makes breakfast so easy! Try it!!

Amazing Stuffed Mushrooms

I made these yummy stuffed mushrooms for dinner last night. They are very easy, healthy, and hubby actually requests them (he never requests the healthy foods!).

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped (the smaller the chopping, the better!)
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
3/4 cup cooked whole-wheat couscous
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes in olive oil with italian spices
4 large portabello mushrooms, stems and gills removed

Heat oven to 450*. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray and place mushrooms in it, tops down. In a large skillet coated with olive oil-flavored cooking spray, over medium  heat, cook onions, garlic, and thyme until onions are tender. Add spinach, cook for 1 minute or until wilted. Remove from heat; stir in couscous, Parmesan cheese and tomatoes. Mound mixture into mushrooms. Lightly coat with cooking spray and bake 15 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

These are amazing! I served them with some smoked sausage, a plum, and some Cabot reduced fat cheddar cheese. So good!

New Spin on Zucchini

I don’t love meat. Most days I can honestly say I don’t like meat, but sometimes I have a craving for a cheeseburger! In our home, I have a hard time coming up with dinner ideas because hubby is strickly a meat and potatoes kind of guy…He really doesn’t even like pasta (the horror!!!).

Since I don’t care to have meat, I have started to question why I feel the need to eat it every night for dinner when I could make myself a vegetarian dish while I am making hubby’s meat dish. The plus side, he will have extra leftovers for lunch the next day! I have done this for two nights now, and I can’t say that it has been all that hard. Yes, I did use an extra pan on the stovetop, but that’s not a biggie. As of now (Wednesday morning) I haven’t eaten any meat since Sunday dinner and I don’t miss it a bit! I am having lots of fun looking up recipes using beans and lentils….can’t wait to try them!!

Anyways, I had a zucchini that needed to be used up, so I came up with this idea for a sandwich. I made the same thing for hubby, but used pre-cooked meatballs instead of zucchini. These were so simple and very delicious!!!!

Zucchini Grinder

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large zucchini
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 small can of mushrooms (or fresh)
1 cup marinara sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
4 whole wheat mini sub buns

Preheat oven to 350*. Heat oil and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini and mushrooms, and cook until zucchini is slightly tender. Season with salt and pepper (or other seasonings of you liking), and stir in the marinara sauce. Cook and stir until the sauce it heated.

Line a 9×12 baking pan with foil. Open up sub buns and place on foil. Sprinkle a little bit of mozzarella in the bottom of each bun. Spoon a generous amount of zucchini mixture into each bun. Top with a handful of cheese. Cover pan loosley with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, until bread is heated through and cheese is melted.

***I did two seperate pans of sauce, one with zucchini and one with partially thawed, pre-cooked meatballs. I also baked them a little bit longer, just to make sure the meatballs were nice and hot. You could also wrap these individually in foil to bake, but I thought the cheese might stick to everything!

My Favorite Breakfast

I love carbs of all kinds. If I could eat bread/biscuits/pasta etc. at every meal and snack, I would. When I started doing Weight Watchers, I had to cut back on my carb intake…especially at breakfast.

I found this wonderful recipe somewhere along the way and I have fallen in love with it! I have made a few adjustments to make it my own, but it still turns out great every time. I can’t believe that I have never take a picture of these babies, maybe I inhale them too fast!!! As written, these are 3WW Points, each. Back when there was the “Core” and “Flex” plans at Weight Watchers, I would substitute apple chunks for raisins to make this a “Core” recipe. Get creative with these!!! They are very large and filling….and very easy to make!

Big Breakfast Cookies

1 1/4 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned work best)
1/4 cup raisins (or chopped apples, or craisins….)
1/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups dry milk (I usually use a little less…just over 1 cup so it doesn’t taste so milky)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or a little dab more)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup Splenda (I usually use a lot less than this, like a heaping tablespoon, so it doesn’t have that fake Splenda flavor)

Mix ingredients well. Spoon 4 cookies on a cookie sheet sprayed with PAM. Bake in a 350* oven for 15-20 minutes. I use my baking stone which makes them perfect every time!)

 

These do need to be used up fairly fast, otherwise they will get soggy and start to mold. I store them in a ziploc in the refrigerator, but I have never tried to freeze them.